My 716A which promises 16x speed on 16x media is not at all capable of reaching its maximum speed. At best it hits around 6.7x before bottoming out for a few seconds. After which its lucky to hit 4.5x. I have tried everything I can think of: Changed the IDE chain Checked Hardware Devices to confirm DMA support Made sure nothing was chained with it Updated to the current firmware Nothing I've tried has worked and I'm finding myself at a complete loss.
Just wondering what your computer specs are and what program are you using to burn with? The 716 should be at Ultra DMA 4
Where can I check for the DMA settings of the drive? I am suspicious of the Windows Hardware Manager's readings. My comp: AMD 2200+ Gigabyte GA-7VAXP 1g RAM XP SP2
Open Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controlers, select the location of the 716 primary or secondary, click on advanced settings, look at current transfer mode. Mine says Ultra DMA mode 4.
That's not a good transfer rate. Multi-word DMA 2 is 16.7MB/s. 16x burning is around 22.16MB/s. The 716 can connect at 66.7MB/s. Is the Plextor a master or slave? Is anything else connected to this IDE channel? With your connection now you should be able to burn at 8x.
its master without anything else hooked up to the chain CMOS registers it as ultra dma 4 but windows states multi-word ultra dma 2
I see why your suspicious that's kinda strange. Have you tried uninstalling the the channel and rebooting? Also in PlexTools do you have Enable DMA checked off?
Could the cable be damaged in some way? Is it wired correctly, blue connector to the motherboard, gray/middle connector not used(slave), end/black connector to the 716? Do you require a bios update?
All the cables i've tried are brand-new. This includes the cable which came with the unit. The is correct connected to the unit. It is marked as master correctly according to plex tools. A bios update for my mb?
Yes. There are a few requirements needed to achieve UDMA4. The drive must support UDMA, a controller capable of UDMA either built into the motherboard or a PCI IDE controller card, operating system and bios support, 80 conductor cable. Do you know your mb is capable of a UDMA transfer rate on the secondary IDE channel? Check for a bios update for bug fixes and improvements.
I do belive the Giga-byte GA-7VAXP can handle UDMA4. The cable I am currently using came with the device. I'm assuming its an 80 wire cable. Update: After fxcking around with the bios settings it now states UDMA4 - however the problem still persists. I believe the drive is defective.
It's possible. Could you try installing a different drive to see it's transfer mode. Also try installing the 716 into a different machine and see it's transfer mode.
